After successfully demonstrating focal cognitive improvements in healthy subjects, we tested DC brain polarization as a mean of improving verbal fluency in patients with frontotemporal dementia and praxis and hand function in patients with corticobasal syndrome. Preliminary results in the latter study are encouraging. We are initiating a Phase I study to examine the safety and effects of bilateral polarization of the frontal lobes. We expect this technique that produced significant effects in double-blind studies over 30 years ago and was subsequently forgotten to yield stronger effects on cognition. Neurophysiological probe studies We are initiating a study aimed at detecting the activity of the midbrain reward processing system with an instantaneous measure of inhibitory activity in the motor cortex. Success in this area will yield a new paradigm for the investigation of human motivation and learning, as well as behaviors related to risk-taking and addiction. Collaborative work Neurophysiological studies of inhibition in the motor cortex conducted by Dr. Don Gilbert at the U. of Cincinnati Children's Hospital are demonstrating important endophenotypes in ADHD and, in particular, related to a polymorphism in a gene regulating the dopamine system.